The Panasonic 45mm f/2.8 Macro is designed for any Lumix G Micro system camera such as Panasonic’s G2 or GF2.

Panasonic 45mm f/2.8 Macro Leica D MFT

Featuring a Micro FourThirds lens mount and taking the 2x crop factor into consideration, the Panasonic 45mm f/2.8 Macro offers an equivalent of 90mm in film terms and features a construction of 14 glass elements in 10 groups. An internal focusing system is used to prevent the front element protruding when focusing and it’s unique in the way it features optical stabilisation, coming in the form of Panasonic’s Mega Optical Image Stabiliser (OIS). It has a focus limit switch on the side of the barrel, which allows you to restrict the minimum focus distance for faster AF operation when it’s not being used for close-ups. Placed up against its rivals, it’s dwarfed by most of its competitors. Feeling petite in the hand, the manual focus ring offers plenty of grip due to the abundance of finely spaced grooves, and it’s very satisfying to use thanks to its smooth and fluid motion.

The lens includes a stepping motor, which helps keep the noise of AF to a minimum, but we discovered it had a tendency to hunt a fraction before locking on the subject. As for the £589 price – ouch!